"To protect the secrets of the Sacred Tools is your duty; value it more than your life."

As Hanzo awoke in the middle of the night due to pain inflicted by the Ame no Habakiri, he recalled this teaching that led him down this path of no return. Before turning his back on the Scarlet Shadow, Hanzo was the Shadow Sect's sharpest blade.

Adopted by the Shadow Sect at a young age, Hanzo was lucky to escape the fate of a wandering beggar. He learned the ways of Nindo, to "uphold justice and endure hardship", and lived his new life by its teachings. For the Scarlet Shadow, his cherished home, he was willing to do anything.

Fierce and tenacious like the wolf, Hanzo always took on the most perilous missions. Even when he returned with grave injuries, he would make his report in full before seeking treatment. Failure was something not even Hanzo's greatest rivals would dare think of. They knew Hanzo would stop at nothing to achieve his objectives.

Over the course of a decade, Hanzo accumulated so many merits that his peers saw him, a commoner by birth, as only second to Kurēn, the clan's next heir. Hanzo acknowledged Kurēn's unmatched wisdom. If Kurēn vowed to uphold Nindo after he took power, then Hanzo would become his sharpest blade.

Until now, Hanzo never thought his past self was wrong, but it was his near-obsessive persistence that led him to this point.

Some time ago, Hanzo, while engrossed in the Nindo scriptures, suddenly realized that his peers, other orphans adopted by the clan, had routinely disappeared with little explanation. Greatly puzzled, Hanzo began to investigate on his own. During his search, he crossed more than a few elders, resulting in him being stripped of all rank in the clan. The merits he earned at the risk of his life were erased overnight. Hanzo cared little for fame, but he knew something sinister was being covered up. Eventually, he discovered that the elders had been sending ninjas on missions to the forbidden grounds to steal a Cursed Tool that was supposed to be sealed within: the demonic blade Ame no Habakiri.

Countless lives had been sacrificed to the demon blade. Hanzo couldn't bear to think how many in the Scarlet Shadow who simply sought to uphold justice ended up with this fate.

A momentary lapse in concentration caused Hanzo to be discovered by another ninja in the forbidden grounds—it was Kurēn.

In the dark, stone chamber, Kurēn revealed the truth of the Scarlet Shadow: The two factions within the clan had been vying for control of the Seven Sacred Tools, each trying to shift the balance of power in their favor. The elders of the Shadow Sect were sacrificing their own to the Ame no Habakiri in order to awaken its true power.

Kurēn had been secretly gaining influence to abolish this vile practice once he became the clan leader, and seeing Hanzo, he was eager to have a ninja of Nindo help him change the future of the clan.

"Those that were sacrificed to Ame no Habakiri... what of their futures?"

Kurēn had no answer to his question, which sent Hanzo into a rage. He had seen too many hypocrites claiming to act for the greater good, and in that moment, he realized the Scarlet Shadow was no different. His Nindo did not tolerate evil deeds, thus the Scarlet Shadow should not exist. If they craved Ame no Habakiri's power so much, he would show them its true might!

As Hanzo reached for the demon blade on the pedestal, he thought to himself, "Come, either devour me, or let me devour everything!"

The moment he grasped the Ame no Habakiri, its unbridled demonic power invaded his body. In a trance, he saw a whirlpool swallowing ships, or was it a leviathan devouring entire islands? Quickly he realized what he was actually seeing:

It was a vortex of souls; the ninjas who had been sacrificed, and countless more before them. Their wills had long been erased, leaving only an insatiable hunger and darkness churning within the blade; a madness that was neither human nor demon.

The demonic power invaded Hanzo's very being, but his pride refused to be consumed. Feeding on his rage and obsession, he finally tamed the Ame no Habakiri.

"Naive pretender, you will witness my reign from within this blade."

And with that, Hanzo swung the blade at his former comrade Kurēn. "Gaining influence"... that's merely the cowardly compromise of the weak. Without the courage to make the first cut, there would never be change.

After devouring Kurēn, Hanzo left the forbidden grounds. He knew his path as a ninja of the Shadow Sect ninja was forever severed. But what of it?

This Akuma shall carve out the rot from within the Scarlet Shadow once and for all.